


Sunflower Au

by Spacee_Rocks



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Dark Forest (Warriors), Medcat Fire Au, Medcats, Multi, RiverClan (Warriors), ShadowClan (Warriors), SkyClan (Warriors), StarClan (Warriors), ThunderClan (Warriors), Warriors AU, WindClan (Warriors)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:41:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23069404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spacee_Rocks/pseuds/Spacee_Rocks
Summary: When, rather then hiding his dreams, Firepaw shares the dreams he's having with his mentor, Bluestar, she thrusts him into becoming a medicine cat. Firepaw struggles with distant friends and loss while trying to solve why the spirit of his deceased mentor haunts him and struggling to get Starclan to truly speak with him beyond cryptic dreams.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 56





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> Below is the prolouge to a Warrior au i’ve been working on, there is a lot of things I could call this fic but for now its simply Medcat Fireheart Au. its being posted here (and on tumblr) in english and posted on VK in Russian by my friend Kedikat. Constructive criticism is more than encouraged and feel free to theorize in the comments. Thank you for reading!

The fall scent of the growing fields of the farm filled her nose, the smells of corn and overturned dirt swirling around her. While she could smell the farm it was shocking to find it was nowhere to be seen, the only thing indicating that it may be near was a distant field of tall yellow flowers, Sunflowers, swaying ever so slightly in the wind. With soft steps she approached the field, the closer she got the taller the flowers appeared to be, their golden petals almost blocking out the sky to her.

Deeper in the field she could hear the faint voices, ones she often heard while in camp, the voices of her clanmates. The voice that drew her in deeper was the voice of her mentor, Featherwhisker, whose voice was just barely rose above the others. She now raced, twisting through the dark, tunnel-like area between the stems as the flowers blocked out any light to guide her. She had to stop more than once only to find that Featherwhisker's voice was in a different direction, the other voices that now surrounded her were chanting the same as her mentor.

" The Fire, The Fire. Come to see The Fire."

It felt like she had been running for days, but she had no way of telling the passage of time with the lack of sun here. As she began to grow tired and she felt an odd aching in the back of her neck, a small light flashed just in the corner of her vision. She planted her paws into the dirt to come to a sudden stop, as she stopped so did the chanting that had begun to ring in her ear becoming unreadable from one voice to another, Featherwhisker's voice remained,

" The Fire is unready."

Following the light she came to stand in a small clearing a single sunflower setting in the center, it barely reached her haunches and the golden petals were lit aflame, blazing but not yet burnt.

" The Flame is lit, but it can not spread where it is. With the field burnt the young seeds may grow even stronger than the flowers here now. Pick The Flame and guide it so it may do as its destined."

She hesitated," B- But the field, the flowers are tall and strong, why should they burn?" Her voice cracked, she didn't want to burn the field, The Flame wasn't harming anything and the flower still had not burned away. " Why should I kill The Flame only to harm others?"

"Spottedleaf, do you not see? The flowers are dying, their soil is no longer well enough to support them. What is worse? A hurt flower and temporary anguish or a field of forever dead flowers?"

With a hung head and a soft breath, she lowered her head to bite through the base of the stem letting it fall into the dirt before picking it up. She hesitated momentarily, worry sinking in her eyes and she could feel that pain in her neck grow stronger, before racing back into the tunnels of stems. The voices of ThunderClan now cried, of anguish, fear, and anger, but Spottedleaf knew she could not stop. Even the flower she held, whose voice was now even louder then her mentor's had been, cried in anguish for the field, Her eyes began to blur from both tears and the smoke that was clouding in the undergrowth of the field.

Spottedleaf almost screamed in relief when she found the edge of the field, though she did not stop running until she was a tree length away from the field, dropping the flower and turning to see what she had done. The field was no longer a field but rather the briar of the camp walls, blurs of cats were racing out of the entrance, smoke poured out of the camp in plumes and indistinct cries could be heard all around her. When she turned to look at the flaming flower it had been replaced with a larger, more grown version of Firepaw as he was yelling something she could not hear as he desperately tried to do what looked like reviving the kit.

She felt in shock, this catastrophe was out of her control and she knew this is what Star Clan wanted but why? Why would their ancestors want this? How could this benefit her clan? With a shake of her head, she moved to join Firepaw over the kit only to find she could no longer affect this vision. She looking at Firepaw's face in this moment his fur charred slightly but the most notable thing to her was the petals in his fur. Almost haphazardly, he had petals and seeds of sunflowers in his fur, this caused her to step back in shock and as she did the pain in her chest came to a crescendo and she felt herself fall.

With a start, Firepaw is shoved awake not only by his dream but by Greypaw nudging him to finally get up.  
" Come on pal! Training time," Greypaw was smiling down at him and Ravenpaw could just barely be spotted in the den entrance waiting for the two. " You can't keep sleeping in!"

With a warry smile, Firepaw rose to his paws, legs still weak from a lack of sleep and possibly from his disorganized nest. Upon entering the clearing Lionheart could be seen speaking with Bluestar and Tigerclaw, Runningwind and Spottedleaf setting together near the medicine cat den, and Frostfur could be seen watching her kits. All of which barely were registering with the ginger tom, who was leaning against Greypaw currently as a sort of guide. As the trios meet two pairs of eyes gave very concerned looks to the tired tom while Tigerclaw looked on expression ever cold.

"Firepaw," Bluestar began her voice hardly giving way to her concern, " Once you finish tending to Yellowfang your training will begin with me at the Great Sycamore."

The other two mentors gave motion for their apprentices to follow as they left, Greypaw gave Firepaw a last gentle nudge before leaving him alone with Bluestar. there was a pause between the two before Bluestar simply stood and walked away from Firepaw. He sighed and took his trek over to where Yellowfang was being held where he was busy till almost sun high, looking a bit more awake and a small smile on his face.

As he made his way to the Great Sycamore he couldn't help but mumble to himself, " Maybe getting some poppy seeds would be a good idea..."


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 1 is finally done- want to once again thank my friend Kedi for not only translating this into Russian but also for making character designs/bios! The bios may contain some spoilers for the future of the story- but feel free to check them out! I would love to see y’alls art!
> 
> -kedi: https://vk.com/kedicat  
> -bios: https://toyhou.se/kedicat/characters/folder:1206877

The dull moonlight that slipped into the apprentice den would usually be something that helped soothe the young cats to sleep, Greypaw was one who could truly vouch for that, but one ginger remained awake staring intensely at the cracks of the den. Firepaw had been asleep merely moments ago but had once again been flung back to consciousness by the ever insistent dreams. They rarely made sense to him, he may recognize something like a sound or location and as he had more of these dreams the more they seemed to happen in ways.

Finally, Firepaw grew tired of his staring contest with the moon and stood from his disastrous nest, careful not to wake Greypaw, who had practically fallen asleep in Firepaw's nest, and left the den. Outside it was fairly bright, it was almost Moonhigh, the clearing was fairly empty, only a few cats getting ready for the next patrol, to Firepaw's surprise however Bluestar was also awake and speaking with the leaving patrol. He wasn't sure if he was happy about this or more worried. Once the patrol, headed by Runningwind, finally left Bluestar went to return to her den across the camp and spotted Firepaw, a look of concern flashing across her face.

She approached her apprentice, Firepaw was actually concerned something bad had happened during the last patrol but when Bluestar simply sat beside him and looked out across the camp, and for a long moment they simply sat together... silently... Firepaw hated it.

"Why are you still awake?" Her voice didn't hold the usual calm, he often called it her 'leader voice', this was very much a tone he was used to from Bluestar.

Firepaw hesitated, how do you explain to your clan leader and mentor that you've dreamed of such odd things that it keeps you up at night? Wait... He just did or well at least to himself.

" I... I've been dreaming..." He manages to speak despite his voice feeling gone. Once again the duo is plunged into a bout of silence which only worried the tom even more.

Bluestar stood and motioned for Firepaw to follow her, at the entrance to her den she parted the hanging lichen for Firepaw to enter before her. Little moonlight entered the stone den but a cool breeze could still sweep in, Firepaw imagined it helped fall to sleep fast despite being separated from the rest of the clan. Firepaw hadn't even sat down before Bluestar was letting the lichen fall back into place and set before him,

" Tell me your dreams, it's imperative you tell me every detail, no matter how small." Her voice was in 'leader mode', cold and focused, it quite spooked him.

He wasn't sure where to start, so many of the dreams had already come to fruition, would she even want to hear those? At first, he tried to brush them off as something not to worry about but as Bluestar continued to stare him down the tom caved.

“The first few dreams I had were simple, hunting and whatnot, but the longer I was here the stranger they became,”

Bluestar’s only reaction at the moment was the slightest raise of a brow, Firepaw saw that as a sign to continue speaking. It felt like he was speaking nonsense to himself but Bluestar still sat and listened, the only noise leaving her being small hums of acknowledgment. Firepaw's only pause was when he started to notice flecks of the rising sun shining into the den, he must not have been so subtle with his glances because Bluestar also looked to the lichen curtain seeing the light seeping in.

“ Firepaw what you’ve shared is concerning. Please give me time to speak with Spottedleaf on this and I’ll come back to get you once we’re done.”

The leader stood and began to leave her den, FIrepaw standing to follow her only for her to stop him.

“ There is no training for you today, Stay here and rest.”

Firepaw tried to refuse only for Bluestar to state louder for him to stay and rest. The apprentice slinks back into the den and watches Bluestar leave the den, he stays staring at the lichen for a moment as though she would instantly come back. Eventually, he felt the heaviness of sleep, blanket itself over him and he began to curl up in the corner of the den. As he begins to drift to sleep he notes how cold it feels to sleep in the den without any other cats nearby, he began to miss the heat of his friends beside him. And before falling asleep his last thought was, “ I would hate to sleep here every night.”

-

The area around Firepaw was vast, an endless valley of faint green and what appeared to be pollen floating through the air. Firepaw, feeling energized, began playfully chasing and jumping at the pollen. He felt as though he could do this forever, to feel fulfilled and happy. He came to a halt however when in the far off distance a white cat stood watching, Firepaw didn’t question this cat’s presence here for some reason.

“ Hello? Would you like to join me?” The tom called out.

The white cat did not respond but began to slowly come down to Firepaw, who sat watching the figure’s slow approach. As they got closer Firepaw realized this cat wasn’t just white they were transparent and a faint light radiating off of them. Firepaw did not recognize this cat, they had long fur and just as long whiskers and they walked with a slowness that reminded him of Yellowfang. The cat finally stood with Firepaw, staring at the orange tom despite the cat's very obvious lack of irises, it made Firepaw feel uneasy and he avoided looking in their eyes.

“W-Who are you?” Firepaw barely muttered.

“Are you prepared?” Their voice revealed their old age, but that wasn’t what Firepaw was focused on. The cat’s mouth never moved.

Firepaw quickly stood and excused himself, he turned around and ran away from the cat. It felt like he’d hardly ran for a moment before he had run right back to the cat, who repeated his question. Once again he ran, and again, and again. Eventually, all Firepaw could hear was the question as it grew louder and louder until he stopped running and curled into himself and covered his ears with his paws.

“Please stop! I don’t know, I don’t know! What am I meant to be prepared for!?”

The voice stopped and it was eerily quiet. He opened his eyes to be greeted by translucent paws. Firepaw launched back upon his paws, raising his hunches in defense and hissing at the other cat. The other cat showed no signs of fear at the act.

“Who are you!” Firepaw now screamed in fear.

And after a short silence, the other spoke.

“Fire.”

Suddenly the once peaceful greens of the space were lit aflame and the pollen turned to specks of ash that flew through the air. The smell of the smoke felt as though it would suffocate him and he began to cough viciously. The other cat simply watched the tom as he curled into a ball of coughs and wheezes and shook his head, standing and walking into the fire.

As Firepaw tried to open his eyes to see again, through the smoke he could see a small sprout where the cat had once stood. The tom couldn’t recognize what type of plant it could be especially due to the tears in his eyes but he could tell it wasn’t burning like everything else.

-

As Bluestar approached her den she could hear the faintest whimpers but just as she was about to enter a flash of orange ran out through the lichen. She had to blink twice before turning around to see the apprentice crouching, his fur on end and eyes wider than a vole. She looked around the camp, it was sunhigh so most of the clan was sharing suns in the clearing and was now watching the hysterical apprentice. She quickly reacted now, leaping over to him and grabbing him by his scruff and pulling him back into her den.

He was instantly passive once grabbed by his scruff and realized where he was, he dropped silent as he was dropped back in the den. Bluestar looked down at him with absolute shock, he could only look at her for a moment before turning his head in shame.

“You were dreaming again weren’t you?”

Firepaw couldn’t bring himself to speak to her.

“Firepaw.” she spoke louder, demanding.

“Yes.” His voice barely a whisper.

“Follow me.”

Firepaw tried to refute her demand but was shot a glare. He stood and followed his leader out of her den, his head hung low and as he looked around he found several cats watching worriedly. He caught sight of his friends sitting among them, Greypaw tried to run to Firepaw only for Ravenpaw to cautiously hold him back. Firepaw looked away not wanting to look at the others watching him. Bluestar led him to the medicine cat den, Spottedleaf was sitting outside the den looking a little worried.

“Bluestar, What was that ruckus I heard?” Her voice perfectly reflected her worried face.

“ Firepaw seems to have had a bad dream,” She paused and looked back to Firepaw, “or a vision.”

Firepaw ears perked and he looked to his mentor with shock. He tried to sputter out a refute but he couldn’t form a sentence let alone an argument. He couldn’t be having visions like medicine cats have visions! He didn’t believe what his dreams could become a reality, He didn’t want what he’s dreamt to be real.

“ Firepaw, what you told me was more than enough for me to think that these dreams of yours were from Starclan but I still asked Spottedleaf to make sure the assumption was sound. Which it seems was.”

Firepaw looked between the two she-cats, silence hanging between the three for a long moment and he began to worry that they could hear his heartbeat in his chest. Eventually, Spottedleaf looked to Firepaw with an awkward smile playing on her lips.

“Given that Starclan seems to be sending you these visions it means that you have a strong connection with them, stronger than the usual cat.” She went to continue but was cut off by Bluestar.

“Spottedleaf we can’t spend all day beating around the bush. Firepaw, you are no longer my apprentice.”

“What?! But I didn’t do anything! Bluestar please-” The apprentice jumped to his paws.

“Firepaw! Will you hold your tongue for one moment!” Firepaw dropped his ears and lowered his head, Bluestar waited a moment before clearing her throat and continuing, “ You are no longer my apprentice. You are being passed to Spottedleaf to be trained as a medicine cat.”

Firepaw was dead silent looking between Bluestar and Spottedlaf, He felt as though he could cry. He had been training to be a warrior for moons just for that to suddenly be thrown into the wind. A desire to run was rushing through him but he couldn’t even move his body, even mentally he began to shut down. The thing to bring him back was Bluestar placing her nose to Firepaw’s forehead sympathetically.

“I know you’ll do great.” she barely whispered to him before moving to return to the clearing, “ I’ll hold the ceremony before moonrise tonight. For now, Spottedleaf please let Firepaw get comfortable.”

“Understood, Bluestar.”

-

Firepaw waited a long time before leaving the den to fetch his bedding from the apprentice den, slipping out of there once Spottedleaf got back to her work. The clan had gone back to their normal day, no one noticing Firepaw as he walked through. He had expected the den to be empty but to his surprise, Ravenpaw was resting in his bed. Ravenpaw, hearing someone enter the den, turned to look, launching on to his paws upon seeing it’s Firepaw.

“Firepaw! There you are! What happened to you, Greypaw and I were worried about you all day!”

Firepaw looked at his friend surprised by his sudden alarm but he couldn’t bring himself to address Ravepaw’s questions. Simply lowering his head and going to his bedding, which was still a mess from his restless sleeping, and began to gather it up so he could take it to the med-den.

“Firepaw?” The small apprentice’s voice was now worried, it almost reminded Firepaw of how he sounded when Tigerclaw was around. He felt terrible for making Ravenpaw this upset.

“I’m… being moved to the medicine cat den.” Firepaw left his disaster bed and went to sit with Ravenpaw, resting his forehead against the other’s neck.

Ravenpaw remained silent for a moment before resting his head on Firepaw’s, they remained like that for what felt like hours but had merely been moments. Eventually, Firepaw lifted his head and looked around the den, noting that Greypaw wasn’t here.

“Is Greypaw out?”

“ I think he’s still hunting, Tigerclaw is having him hunt at Sunning Rocks.”

“Oh…”

“Are you gonna stay to tell him when he gets back?”

“Well no, I’ve got to get back to the med den, he’ll find out when Bluestar announces it.”

Firepaw stood, giving Ravenpaw a lick to his forehead, and went back to gathering his bedding. It took a moment but Firepaw was taking his leave carrying his bedding, one last glance into the den showed Ravenpaw still watched him and with an awkward smile to the black cat Fireapaw left the den.

Firepaw spent the rest of the evening curled up in his bedding, not sleeping, his eyes following Spottedleaf as she moved through the den. Occasionally she would ask Firepaw if he’d like to help, only for him to shake his head, and she would nod and return to her work. The tom knew it was rude for him to refuse his mentor at the moment, but he just wasn’t ready to work, he was still rather tired but refused to sleep in case he dreamed again.

With tired eyes, he watched the sun sink into the trees and knew that the apprentice ceremony would begin soon, much to his hesitation, and so it was no surprise when Lionheart entered the den. 

“Bluestar is calling a clan meeting.” His voice was soft, Bluestar had probably told him already what’s happened.

“Thank you for telling me Lionheart. Firepaw, are you ready?” She turned to look at the orange tom, who nodded and followed her to the Highrock.

Most of the clan was already gathering around and Firepaw could see his friends sitting near the back of the crowd, Greypaw motioned frantically for him to join them but they remained ignored for now. Firepaw took a seat at the base of Highrock, Bluestar already stood atop Highrock, after Spottedleaf joined her along with Lionheart she began.  
“Today is a big day, Our medicine cat, Spottedleaf, will be taking an apprentice.” 

A hushed murmur washed over the clan.

“ None of the kits are old enough to be an apprentice though, she couldn’t possibly be taking a warrior apprentice, right?” Whispered Speckletail, Which made Firepaw sink into himself and curl his tail around his paws. 

Bluestar backs down from her spot so the other can take her place, a nervous smile on the tortoiseshell's face, “Spottedleaf.”

“An apprentice has been receiving messages from Starclan, So I would like to ask Firepaw to-'' Before Spottedleaf could continue an uproar rose from the crowd, mostly small exclamations of confusion but two cats, in particular, were the loudest. Longtail and Darkstripe.

“ You can’t possibly expect Starclan to be speaking with a kittypet!” Many calls of agreement sounded after, not surprisingly Tigerclaw was prepared to follow up Darkstripe’s comment.

“He’s right, Spottedleaf, he has no clan blood. Why would Starclan pick him of all cats?”

Bluestar stepped forward looking over the clan, “I do not know Starclan’s goals but they have spoken and we are not the ones to question them.” She turned to look at Tigerclaw, “ It does not matter his blood, he excelled in his time as my apprentice so I trust he will do equal if not greater as Spottedleaf’s.” 

Firepaw supposed that was enough to assure the clan since it became quiet once more. Bluestar returned to her place and nodded to Spottedleaf to continue.

“Okay… Firepaw, I would like to ask you to be my apprentice, under the guidance of Starclan. You will learn the way of a medicine cat and follow not only the warrior code but the medicine cat code. Do you accept?”

Firepaw truly wanted to refuse but he knew that this was a responsibility he needed to take. _“For the clan,”_ he thought as he nodded. Spottedleaf smiled down at him before coming down from the Highrock, stopping in front of him. Firepaw tried to put on his best smile for her, but he was sure she could see through his facade.

Spottedleaf leaned forward, offering to press noses with her new apprentice, he returned the gesture. Upon parting, Bluestar had taken her place at the head of Highrock and was chanting Firepaw’s name along with the rest of the clan. It reminded him of his first day in the clan, receiving his new name and being accepted into a place he had only ever dreamed of.

He couldn’t help but smile to himself as he sees Ravenpaw and Greypaw, who’s basically on the verge of tears, race towards him. _“ It doesn’t matter what path I take… These two will always be here for me.”_


End file.
